A Numerical Study on the Bird Strike of a Crashworthy composite wing by a Coupled Eulerian-Lagrangian (CEL) approach

Crashworthiness is defined as the capability of a structure to guarantee its occupants safety during a crash event. In the present work, the crashworthiness of a composite wing section, subjected to a bird strike event, has been investigated. Indeed, the mechanical behaviour of the impacted wing section has been investigated by means of the FE code ABAQUS/Explicit. The bird mass has been provided by the certification agencies, and recommended to be limited to 1.82 kg for an impact located on the wings. The impact phenomenon has been numerically simulated by means of a Coupled Eulerian-Lagrangian (CEL) approach. Indeed, the impacted structure has been modelled considering a Lagrangian formulation, while a Eulerian formulation has been used to model the bird. Moreover, Eulerian-Lagrangian contacts are used for transfer the loads arising from the impact event to the Lagrangian structure. The proposed numerical model, capable to take into account the matrix and fibre traction and compression damages, uses a 3D Finite Element formulation to better predict the deformations and the damages onset and propagation during the impact event. The numerical results, in terms of structural deformation, energy absorption, and damage onset and propagation have been obtained by considering different impact locations and different impact angles